Worries over e-cigarette poisonings have ignited the debate over the introduction of a public UK ban.

With more than 200,000 British children now starting to smoke every year, the latest fear is that ‘vaping’ will be next.

Since the introduction of e-cigarettes throughout the last decade, the number of users has continued to rise, with an estimated 1.3million e-cigarette ‘vapers’ in the UK – a staggering rise from just 700,000 last year.

With a cloud of confusion over where e-cigarettes can actually be used, The Department of Health said: “E-cigarettes aren’t currently regulated like products that contain tobacco. At the moment, we don’t know enough about whether they are safe, effective or made to consistent quality standards."

It is believed by many that e-cigarettes not only undermine the UK’s seven-year old smoking ban but also pose a risk to ‘passive vapours’ as well as glamorising the habit for children.

Wales’ Minister for Health and Social Services Mark Drakeford has announced that Wales could be the first part of the UK to introduce a ban of e-cigarettes in public places, there are currently no plans to enforce a ban in England.

Drakeford also raised concerns about the health risks of ‘vaping’ in public places: "E-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is highly addictive, and I want to minimise the risk of a new generation becoming addicted to this drug."

There has even been support further up the political chain as UKIP leader Nigel Farage recently described e-cigarettes as ‘remarkable’.

E-cigarettes will be regulated as medicines by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency when new European tobacco laws are enforced in 2016.

A ‘vaper’ himself, manager of e-cigarette retailer VIP, Corby Starr said that he would support a ban on use in public areas as he discourages his customers from using e-cigarettes indoors.

He told MM: “I tell my customers to not use them inside and to use it as a normal cigarette so that they’re not smoking for longer than they usually would.”

Starr recollected hearing stories of teenagers already comparing who has the best flavour and best style of e-cigarette.

The Bury 19-year-old added: “So many kids are going to start smoking anyway, so why let them have the harmful one of the two.

“I’ve had parents come in with their kids before. I just speak to the parents on the quiet and give them the refills that have absolutely 0% nicotine but still have the flavour. The kids never know.”

The store manager says that until legislation is introduced, the biggest problem is the quality of the liquid nicotine refills.

Unchecked substances claiming to be liquid nicotine are already appearing on markets for knock-off prices around Manchester

Legally, e-cigarettes are allowed to be used in any public space. However many companies have already taken matters into their hands and placed bans on their vehicles and premises.

Assistant Manager of Piccadilly Tavern Mike Bretherton, 27, from Oldham said: “As a company rule, we don’t allow e-cigarettes. When it’s crowded you can’t always see the difference between smoke and vapour.

Like over a million fellow users, Mr Bretherton has taken advantage of e-cigarettes to stop smoking. Experts are predicting that e-cigarettes could potentially prevent 100,000 tobacco-related deaths in the UK each year by using them to stop smoking.

“Personally I think that e-cigarettes should be allowed inside. I’ve been using them for five months to quit smoking and I’m about to go onto my 0% filter. But I think they should be registered as a medicinal aid to help people quit.”

Many of the UK’s bus and coach companies have also implemented their own ‘no vaping’ policy over the past two years.

Stagecoach introduced their ban of e-cigarettes to their customer conduct following an incident in July 2012.

At the height of terrorism alerts in the run up to the 2012 Olympics, a Megabus passenger called 999 after witnessing a man doing something in his bag from which smoke appeared. The coach was stopped at the M6 toll by armed police with bomb disposal experts closing the toll for six hours. The smoke was in fact an e-cigarette.

Similar confusion occurred last year when a life-long Man City fan was stripped of his season ticket as he was escorted from the Etihad by police, after stewards spotted him using an e-cigarette.

Other public places, such as shopping centre Manchester Arndale, does have avoided an outright ban and are dealing with each case of e-cigarette usage individually.

A spokesperson for the shopping centre told MM: “Whilst we do not have a specific policy in place regarding the use of e-cigarettes, the health and safety of anyone visiting Manchester Arndale is of paramount importance to us.”

Residential child care worker Liam Twigg from Didsbury disagrees with the prospect of a ban. The 31-year-old non-smoker and non-vaper said: “I don't think they should ban e-cigarettes if there are no dangerous chemicals in them.

“They are doing no harm so why ban them? Most users are quitting normal cigarettes so why isolate them more?”

This was a view shared by Welsh Conservatives this week who described the ban as a ‘step backwards’ for quitters, with the possibility of stigmatising people who are trying to give up.

The ingredients of e-cigarettes and the lack of research on long-term effects have strengthened the pro-ban cause as US research suggests that poisonings are on the rise.

Statistics from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have revealed that the number of e-cigarette-related poisonings has risen from 0.3% to 42% in just four years.

The new US figures are now casting a cloud of doubt over the safety of inhalation and ingestion of liquid nicotine, with symptoms such as nausea and inhalation difficulties worst affecting children.

The report from the States found that the most common symptoms of poisoning amongst under-fives were vomiting, nausea and eye irritation. The poisonings were caused by the liquid nicotine being either ingested, inhaled or absorbed through the skin or eyes.

One of the main selling points for most e-cigarette retailers is the fact that e-cigarettes are listed as containing only four main ingredients – propylene Glycol, vegetable glycerin, nicotine, food flavourings.

Traditional tobacco cigarettes on the other hand contain around 19 ingredients as well as 50 known carcinogens and another 3500 additional chemicals.

Instead of producing smoke, e-cigarettes produce a second-hand vapour which is thought to be mainly water. However, opponents claim that more research is required to prove that the vapour is harmless.

The glamorisation of using e-cigarettes by celebrities, such as US actress Katherine Heigl, is also a worry for parents of some impressionable teens.

Image courtesy of Michael Dorauch with thanks

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Comments

Could I point out a few things? The report mentioned comes from the Center for Disease Control in the USA, a country of approximately 313 million - that's 313,000,000 people. From memory, the amount of calls to the poison center was just over two hundred; yes, around 235 or so. Now please do your maths. It also does not differentiate people calling the center to ask for advice on e-liquid, for example a parent or grandparent asking what safety measures they need to take with e-liquid around children from those calling because a child has somehow ingested e-liquid because it was left in an accessible place (and if that's the case, then there's simply no way of legislating against stupidity). So far there have been no verifiable reports of children or adults being poisoned by e-liquid in the UK or the EU.

Drivel ! Vaping is great & i love it. Some people will go to great lengths to harm things but their findings are usually not credible.

There's more poison in the city air from fuel emissions than that of 2,000,000 british vapers. Vaping is fine & people should relax a bit. It's the best thing to happen to the western world since forever !

Corby Starr shouldn't be selling e cigs - he is too ill informed. Why advise his customers to use it for no longer than a normal cigarette? E-cigs are much much safer than normal cigarettes - doctors agree this. There is no passive vapour - studies have shown this. As for the Department of Health - there hasn't been ONE documented death from vaping, ever. Vaping is infinitely safer than smoking. This scare mongering story (and others like it) will stop people from taking up e-cigs - people whose lives might otherwise have been saved.

wow.. pharma really wants to get their hands on this product... what about the much bigger number of poisonings on makeup, house hold detergents, toothpaste, etc, etc? ban those as well? prease read this concerning this matter. ecigarette-research DOT com/web/index.php/2013-04-07-09-50-07/2014/150-ecig-pois

What an appalling article. Appallingly written and appallingly researched. Everyone of your attacks on ecigs have been refuted by scientific and medical bodies worldwide. Please try to be objective in future. A little research would have shown you the truth. The more people put off by such scare tactics are more people that will stay on tobacco and that means more that will die from tobacco. Is that what you want.

I really don't think "anti-vapors" are concerned about poisonings and I believe they know the exhaled vapor is not harmful. It just comes down to one thing.....They spent a lot of time and energy to get smoking banned all over the world (no easy task) only to have people start vaping which in their opinion resembles smoking too much. In essence they feel like they have wasted their time getting smoking banned. I bet if the vapor exhaled was not visible there would be no complaints.....IMO

I orginally started smoking a vapestick in october 2013 this is a small device thag look like a ciggerette it has aided me in dtopping smoking which was my orimary aim in starting to 'vape' since this I have moved onto different vaping mods that do not look like ciggerets as I now believe myself to be a non-smoker. Whilist I have started buying much bigger and better mods this has given me more of an interest in vaping. I have been able to cut my nicotine intake in half from a high 24mg to a meduim 12mg. I now buy different vaping mods and enjoy seeing how much vapour the mod can produce the higher up the market you decide to price structure yourself. I personally have learnt how my vapour mods work and as some of my mods produce a large amount of vapour I will not smome them around non smokers or non vapours. If I am out in publi I will always ask whether e-ciggerttes/vapour mods are allowed to be smoked as I see this as common curtousy

They talk about kids inhaling the nicotine from e cigg when there is less nicotine in an e cigg compared to a real ciggarette, why do they want to class this as a medicine when it contains no drugs. Government and tabbacco companies are losing millions in revenue as people are taking the safer alternative.Governments have banned smoking in public places as its known to cause cancer. I would say they are surviving on immoral earnings when the know smoking causes death, but it is a democratic society! The real reason is billions of pounds of loss in revenue for these greedy immoral governments.

Spot on Spinc. I would never have quit smoking if vaping hadn't been invented. Best thing I ever did. Hope the government really start panicking as the coffers go lower and lower through people giving up.

OMG, the US has seen a massive rise in calls about nicotine poisonings, they have about 300 calls a year!!! ...But to put things in perspective, they get about 300 calls per month about toothpaste poisoning.

My brother told me he tried vaping and hasn't wanted a cigarette since, I didn't believe him. I have not been a day without a cigarette in 28 years, but i got an Evo and haven't had a cigarette since, no effort at all. Vaping is simply much nicer.

I was spending £60-£70 a week, giving my money to the tax man and the tobacco companies. Now I *need* spend no more than £5 a week on juice. It is my worst fear that the tax man, the tobacco companies and the pharmaceutical companies are going to want to try and legislate their way into the money.

I noticed some celebs also drink... that might encourage teenagers and lead to alcoholism. Maybe we should also have a prohibition on alcohol until that is proved to be safe?

40 year smoker here Vicky and though I get down now and again I can't believe I have not touched a cigarette in a month and doubt I ever will. Smokers stink and I didn't realise how much until I stopped.